Facebook is all set to roll out new patented search algorithms that will sort results based on ‘Facebook Likes’ on the items. Ever since Facebook rolled out the Universal ‘Like’ button, all kinds of web content have now started accumulating ‘Likes’ by Facebook users. Following a similar strategy to Google’s PageRank algorithm which, in a nutshell, runs on the foundation that the relevance of any web item is determined by the number of other quality web items linking to it.

Facebook’s new ‘Likes’ based search runs on the foundation that the relevance of any web item is determined by the number of ‘Likes’ as well as the number of ‘Likes’ from friends. This is really personalized search, where the search results you see is determined by your Facebook friends. If this gets turned on the SEO landscape is going to see a major shift in a new direction.

Facebook has started leveraging their massive Social Graph and Google better watch out – ‘Likes’ are the new ‘Links’.

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That’s a good question because we expect a lot of people to be wondering the same thing – why does Facebook ‘Like’ matter when many other services like Flickr, Tumblr, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, FriendFeed etc have all had their own version of ‘Like’ for a long time? We even have 3 ‘Like’ buttons right here on this page, Twitter’s Tweet**, Facebook’s Like and Posterous’ Fav. It’s because… all ‘Likes’ are not equal and here’s why – Scale and Diversity. Scale: Facebook has 500+ million users who will be ‘liking’ more stuff than all of the other sites combined. Diversity: FriendFeed’s Likes were limited to FriendFeed content, Flickr Favs are limited to pictures on Flickr, Tumblr’s hearts are limited to posts inside Tumblr and Twitter’s Retweets are limited to tweets inside Twitter. But Facebook’s Like button can go anywhere, even outside of Facebook. We even have a Facebook Like button right next to this post on our own site. Programmers can add Facebook Like buttons inside their smartphone apps, Netflix can stick Facebook Like button on to their shows so people can ‘Like’ stuff while watching it on their TVs, iTunes can have Facebook’s Like buttons inside Ping and so on. This wide range is what gives Facebook’s Like button the potential to be a game changer.Now Google can make a universal ‘Like’ button of their own, similar to Facebook’s, they already have ‘Like’ buttons in Google Reader and Buzz for quite some time now and turning that button into a standalone element that anyone can use anywhere is a piece of cake for them. But they don’t have the critical mass of ‘Likers’ to get their Like buttons to reach the same kind of Scale and Diversity that Facebook ‘Like’ has, and they also don’t have a setup like Facebook.com where one user’s ‘Like’ triggers more ‘Likes’ from followers in an avalanche effect. Google is rumored to be working on a Facebook Clone called Google Me and if what they offer is compelling then we can see Facebook’s Likes getting some competition, but it’s getting user adoption is going to be a uphill battle for Google.In the end ‘Like’ buttons are all the same – merely dumb pipes that channel user interaction back to the button’s source. What makes one Like button superior to the rest is simply the number of people using it. Viacom and CBS chairman Sumner Redstone said ‘Content is King’ and TV channels are all dumb pipes and the channel with the best and most content wins. In user-generated Web 2.0, ‘Likes’ are the channels and people are the content. The ‘Like’ button with the most and best users wins.The bigger question however is ‘Why are Likes the new Links’? Be it Google or Facebook, why is everyone working to stick their ‘Like’ buttons everywhere? That’s the subject of a new post that we’ll put up later in the day.**Anyone wondering why Twitter put out an official Retweet button but disabled the ability to edit the tweet before retweeting , here’s why – they think of the Retweet button as their version of the ‘Like’ button and that’s why the official Retweet button mimics the standard ‘single-click-publish-to-followers(friends)’ behavior of ‘Like’ buttons.